Advance Wars -- Field Training, Lesson 13: Fog of War

Well! Last time might've been the biggest legitimate challenge Field Training has to offer (even if some of that was complete and utter tripe, on both sides of the equation), we're still not quite done here. With all our practice, we've certainly accumulated enough experience and fighting sense to lead any force on the field of onions... but... there's still a couple little odds and ends that would amount to a cruel bait and switch if we were presented with such conditions without being properly briefed first... --- Lesson 13: Fog of War You've certainly noticed that every unit has a vision range, and a couple of terrain types even allude directly to it... but the biggest remaining variable will be Fog of War. No stranger to military and strategy games of all stripes, limited visibility is often a factor designed to limit a player's view of the battlefield to small portions in order to create a more strategic environment and amp up the ground-level tension. At its most basic level, it's pretty simple to grasp... units can only see so far away, and your entire view of the battlefield is the sum total of all these visibility ranges. However, you can't see into wooded areas or reefs, so these already-valuable defensive positions can be even more crucial for concealing your forces before you lay down an offensive gambit, which can allow certain units to get a preemptive strike or draw closer than ordinarily possible if all the cards were already on the table. A few notes on what Nell has to say about Fog of War seem to be in order, however. I felt it a bit ambiguous that she would claim that a Recon can see "everywhere"... which isn't something to do with being able to see places other units can't, but that it can always see its full range of vision regardless of where it's positioned. Since only Infantry and Mech units can even cross mountains to get their innate visual advantages, it seems that this particular extra note need not have been made and might've come across as unnecessarily confusing. Furthermore, I know we have no units of the sort on the field, but Fog of War is worthless to air units. Since planes and helicopters are always flying and indeed don't get any terrain bonuses in the first place, they also will not be hidden even when placed overtop forest tiles. And last... but certainly not least... er, how do I put this most delicately? The computer cheats at Fog of War. Or rather, it selectively follows the rules while violating the spirit of the reduced visibility. Obviously the game is always keeping track of where all faction units are at the same time, and therefore it knows at all times where everything is without needing to actually "see" them. To put it simply, it will act as if it's not blind at all. However, it WILL obey the rule that it isn't allowed see units hidden in forests without one of its own units parked directly next to it in order to reveal its position. A prime example of this is the unit of enemy Rockets in the woods to the south of their HQ. It is able to freely fire upon the APC I deployed across the mountains from it, but as we might recall, Rockets only have a vision range of 1...and we can see with the hindsight offered by following the enemy troop count and movements coupled with what we were able to clearly see within our own visual range that there are no other units available to spot for it, and thus it fired freely as if it wasn't under Fog of War conditions at all! It's hard not to be at least a little bitter about this most egregious oversight with regard to AI players' sight ranges, as it wrecks an otherwise gloriously tactical experience... but like knowing its tendencies to go after APCs above all other reason, it's just one other thing to be aware of when it comes to the various quirks of AI troop movements and targeting algorithms. (Don't get too salty! You can still do it!) --- To cap off our learning experience, we're finally promoted from "Candidate" to full-blown "Advisor" and given a... fairly insulting rank to go along with this dubious adulation. We are at the same time introduced to our REAL "protagonist" ...I guess... thing... guy... Andy. Andy is the poster boy among Orange Star COs, somewhat easily regarded as the most "vanilla" among them, and generally a stand-in for any questions the player might have along the way... pretty much to a comical fault and ripe for memetic mutation. Sadly, this is also where we part ways with Nell, as our parting "gift" for making it through her training course is ...no longer receiving her aid. (Not that she actually did much to "help" us beyond telling us what to do... but for our own good, of course!) ...and... I hate to break it to you, but even with Andy taking the field as our CO (...so he gives the commands... and we... "advise"? I don't get you, obligatory player-insertion!), Nell will still pretty much constantly be telling us what to do. (Oh well!)